July 16/97 10:02 am - Desbiens Wins Quiet Stage

Posted by Editor on 07/16/97

Stage 11, Andorre to Perpignan - 192 km
Details: Cat 1, Cat 2 and Cat 4 climbs, 2 Sprints
A very slow start to the stage (not surprising, after the two very tough stages just completed). The first serious breakaway came at the 104 kilometre mark, just after another break was caught. Gontchenkov, Wilfred Peeters, Gaumont and American George Hincapie immediately counterattacked, reaching a maximum of 2:30 after 35 kilometres on their own. The gap started to drop as the peleton reacted and various chase groups kept jumping off the front, and the leaders were caught with 40 kilometres to go. A group of 9 riders went clear shortly after but, after dangling about 20 seconds in front of the field, were brought back with 17 kilometres to go. 3 kilometres later a trio broke clear - Carlo Finco, Sergei Outschakov and Laurent Desbiens - and managed to quickly move to a 1 minute lead. Gan started the run to pull them back, but it was inconsistent and the gap only shrank slowly. At the two kilometre mark it became apparent that the breakaways were not going to be caught and, at the finish, the French rider Desbiens led Finco and Outschakov to an 18 second victory ahead of the Frederic Moncassin led pack. There was no change in the top-20 G.C.
1. Laurent Desbiens (Fra) 5:05:05
2. Carlo Finco (Ita)
3. Sergej Outschakov (Rus) both s.t.
4. Frederic Moncassin (Fra) at 0:18
5. Erik Zabel (Ger)
6. Mario Traversoni (Ita)
7. Fabio Baldato (Ita) all s.t.
GC
1. Jan Ullrich (Ger) 60:06:16
2. Rich.Virenque (Fra) at 2:38
3. Abraham Olano (Spa) 4:46
4. Bjarne Riis (Den) 4:53
5. Marco Pantani (Ita) 5:29
6. Fernando Escartin (Spa) 5:46
7. Laurent Dufaux (Sui) 6:02
8. Oskar Camenzind (Sui) 7:00
9. Francesco Casagrande(Ita) 7:20
10. Cedric Vasseur (Fra) 7:31